How McLaren turned shop floor mutiny into credible recovery
For so long nearly a laughing stock in Formula 1, such has been the magnitude of its fall, McLaren has had to re-examine its entire working culture. STUART CODLING explains how results this past season show the pain might have been worth it...
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When McLaren last won a grand prix, the world was a very different place. One Direction sat atop the US album charts. Google Plus still existed. Shares in Facebook were a snip at $23.99 (in August 2020 they reached $303.91). Felix Baumgartner had just demonstrated the thrilling extent of human endeavour by jumping from the edge of space. There was a James Bond film in the cinemas. You could still buy a BlackBerry, and people were. Donald Trump was arguing against a recount in the US election.
It was 25 November, 2012.
Third in the constructors' championship with the spoils of seven race victories jostling for space in its amply stuffed trophy cabinet, and with the feeling that better reliability might have earned Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button the drivers' title, McLaren was already in the process of failing.
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